Turnplay Log

[Conroe]

Turn 103 - 300BC

The barb Axeman outside of Hamburger moves closer to our copper mine. Our now healed (1xp) Axeman moves into position to defend the mine. The barb should attack on the IBT and die. We have a +25% hill defense bonus, plus another +25% for the barb attacking across a river.

The barb at TC decided to pillage our road rather than die. Our Warrior just fortifies. I'd rather defend in this situation.

We never answered Whomp's question about dropping off that Warrior atop the Goody Hut. I decided against it, because we would only have even odds against that barb.

But, then, look what our venturing Galley should spy! Is it possible that this might be that much fabled second isthmus?

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Balderdash -> I didn't get any feedback on the builds, so I just started Kickbooti's Galley. It will be due in 3 turns after MM'ing the city to slow down growth. I tried to maximize hammers without adding any turns to our research path.

The Great Merchant will be born next turn. I also have a couple of our Workers start two more cottages. I'd like to see about 5 or 6 cottages in this city before CS comes in.

Hamburger -> No Changes. Another Axeman will be ready in 2 turns. The one after that is showing 3 turns, but I'm guessing it will only take 2 turns after the overflow. What next? Another axe or maybe a spear?

Treacle Cottage -> Started a Granary. The city will pop its borders next turn. When it does, put the scientist to work on the corn fields. When the city hits size 3, hire back the scientist. At size 4, hire another scientist. Doing this will pop us a Great Scientist in 22 turns.

Brilliant -> Food uber alles! No changes this turn. Whip the Lighthouse in 8 turns (or 16 hammers). After that, I'm thinking we should chop/whip a Forge to make future whips worth 37 hammers. This city is going to get a lot of the .

 

[Conroe]

I forgot a screenshot ...

Here are our trading options now that Epsilon has access to coastal trading:

When playing the AI, only surplus resources are shown (for the AI). Does it work the same way in MP mode? In other words, are those Epsilon's surplus resources or is that everything they have that we don't?

 

[Whomp]

Yes you will see what they have and as well what we are up on them.

 

[pindicator]

Conroe, what I meant is that religion also spreads naturally through trade routes. By opening our borders we open ourselves to the random spread of Confucianism, not just their missionaries. The rate of this is increased when a shrine is built.

 

[Conroe]

AFAIK religion spreading along the trade network will happen whether you have open borders or not. The only way that I know to stop it is to adopt Theocracy.

 

[pindicator]

Wait, you're right; I was confusing Open Borders with opening trade routes for some reason

 

[Kickbooti]

I would feel good about building a spear at burger and sending up the isthmus. If any city needs a good defensive mix, it is our northernmost city on the isthmus.

 

[Tubby Rower]

When playing the AI, only surplus resources are shown (for the AI).

in MP mode... what you see is what they have. If it says 1 that's their only source... if it say 2 then they have 1 surplus

 

[Conroe]

Turn 104 - 275BC

Our Axeman gaurding Hamburger's copper mine took quite a beating, but was victorious in the end. He has been sent back to Hamburger to heal, while Hamburger's MP takes his place atop the copper mine.

Meanwhile our Warrior gaurding the gold mine gets a splinter from the barb Warrior's club. He heads towards Treacle Cottage to take the place of the dispatched MP. TC's dispatched MP will meet up with our Settler heading towards the silver site.

Meditation is complete and we start on Priesthood. It will be done in 2 turns. Code of Laws is still showing 10 turns. And, of course, our Great Merchant (Harkuf) has been born in Balderdash.

Our exploring Galley is fairly certain that it has found the 2nd isthmus.

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Balderdash -> Changed one citizen from a 3 commerce coastal tile to our new 3 commerce riverside cottage. Kickbooti's Galley will be complete in 2 turns. The city needs at least 2 more cottages to be built before CS comes in.

Hamburger -> No Changes. The city will grow to size 6 next turn. I turned on emphasize hammers so that the governor will assign the citizen to a high hammer tile. Another Axeman is due next turn.

Treacle Cottage -> Fired the scientist and put him to work on the corn fields, now that the borders have popped. The city will grow to size 3 next turn. When that happens, we need to hire the scientist back. At size 4, hire a 2nd scientist.

Brilliant -> Food uber alles! No changes this turn. Whip the Lighthouse in 7 turns. After that, I'm thinking we should chop/whip a Forge to make future whips worth 37 hammers. This city is going to see a lot of the .

 

[Conroe]

Have they built the Kong Miao? Or more aptly, have any messages for a Great Prophet shown up yet? It's only a matter of time since they built the Oracle.

No to the shrine. Mahivira born in 400BC and Moses in 650BC. The Hindu shrine was built in 625BC, BTW.

This is something that I forgot to mention in my report. There was a message in the log that Zoroaster (Great Prophet) was born in 275BC in a distant land. Since it was in the log this turn, that means that either Epsilon or Loco got the GP.

My guess is it was Epsilon that got the GP. We'll know for certain if a shrine is built next turn.

 

[Whomp]

We're so close to meeting someone. Great work Conroe.

 

[Kickbooti]

More ivory! Good job Conroe. Let's plant a city up on the second Isthmus and see if we can't grab the other Ivory too! Let us begin a monopoly on war elephants!

I know, that is crazy talk, but that is what I'm here for.

 

[Conroe]

We're so close to meeting someone. Great work Conroe.

I think the credit belongs to you, Whomp. You were the one that built the Galley and pointed it in that direction. I just followed the coastline. Good job, Whomp!

Let's plant a city up on the second Isthmus and see if we can't grab the other Ivory too!

I'm not sure that this would be a good idea. That city would be so far away from our capital, that I would think the maintenance costs would kill us. The ivory would be nice, though.

 

[Conroe]

Turn 105 - 250BC

We may have a problem with financing our Code of Laws research. We have been running the research slider at 100%. At that rate, we are showing 1 turn remaining on Priesthood and 10 turns on Code of Laws. With the training of our latest Axeman, our net expenses ticked up a notch to -9gpt. We have only 99 gold in the treasury (-9gpt * 11 turns = 99 gold ). We will catch a bit of a break on the research overflow, but founding a new city and training a couple more units (and a Galley) may hamper our research efforts.

Our exploring Galley offloaded the Warrior. I'd say we have found the end of the 2nd isthmus. I'd suggest we send the Galley and the Warrior off into opposite directions. But first, a question for the team: Would it be better to recall our Galley? In other words, how will the other team react to the fact that we have boats in the water? Or, do we even care?

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Balderdash -> Galley due next turn. Reworked citizen tiles to maximize commerce at the expense of hammers. Basicially, I'm trying to maximize the research overflow, at the expense of the production overflow.

Hamburger -> Axeman is complete. We had another Axeman in the queue; I changed it to a Spearman, based upon the earlier recommendations. Reworked the citizens to maximize hammers, at the cost of some starvation, to get the spear next turn.

Treacle Cottage -> Change of plans. I hired both scientists this turn rather than waiting for the city to hit size 4. After playing with the numbers, I realized we could pop the Great Scientist 3 turns sooner with minimal impact to the cities future growth rate. At this point, we should pop our GS in 17 turns. Hopefully Taoism will still be around.

Brilliant -> Food uber alles! No changes this turn. Whip the Lighthouse in 6 turns. The city will grow to size 3 next turn.

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An update on financing our research: After pressing Enter, the system is showing 7 turns to complete CoL. My guess is it will end up being 8 turns after Balderdash is configured back the way it was before I maximized the research overflow. It looks like it worked out better than I had hoped!

 

[Whomp]

Since you can see inside galleys in civ4 I'd say no one will care what it does. I think they'll be as happy for the contact. This should be the team we consider partnering with long term imo.

 

[Conroe]

Turn 106 - 225BC

I wasn't sure if I pressed the right button at first on the trade screen. But after checking, the system says we have open borders with Epsilon. However, we have NO foreign trade routes! Zero, zip, zilch!

More barbs! Ok, so they are only barb Warriors, but still! I was planning on sending that Axeman to the west. Instead, I fortify him. The first barb Warrior will suicide against him, while the other one heads towards the copper mine. Next turn, our axe can move back to defend the copper mine.

The Code of Laws research will be done in 7 turns. I'm assuming that our GM will not give us all of Civil Service, so maybe another 3 or 4 turns after that to complete CS.

First Contact! Ok, probably not first contact, but at least we have now met someone else.
Would someone care to prepare a nice letter of introduction?

Here is the trade screen for Aloha.

What would have been real nice is if I had taken some shots of the various graphs since Aloha is now on them. Unfortunately, I am in a bit of a hurry because of tonight's festivities. I will get them up tomorrow.

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Balderdash -> Galley completed and city resumes the Granary sitting in the queue. Put the reworked citizens back the way they were last turn.

Hamburger -> Spearman is complete and an Axeman is started. Put the reworked citizens back the way they were last turn.

Treacle Cottage -> No changes. City is now working the irrigated corn fields while running 2 scientists. We have 24/200 GS points at +12 per turn.

Brilliant -> No changes. We can whip the Lighthouse in 5 turns.

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Our new (and only) Spearman is dispatched on GoTo orders to Brilliant. It is a 12 turn trip. Meanwhile, our 2nd Galley sails out of Balderdash's port. It will take 6 turns for it to reach the ivory at the top of the isthmus.

Since we are not ready for another city, financial-wise, I hold the Settler in place. In the meantime, we could use some city name suggestions.

 

[Conroe]

As promised, the screenshots of the various graphs are in the post attachments below. I did not include the culture graph because of the forum's 5 attachment limit. Besides, Aloha is creative, they definitely have a lot more culture than us.

Also, here is a look at an updated "Top 5 Cities" list since it is updated with their information.

 

[Conroe]

Turn 107 - 200BC

Start by turning off research (we were at 100%). Not sure that I like this idea, but I have no better ideas to offer. We will accumulate 37 gold for a total of 118 available next turn. Since we have 2 scientists running, I switch the research back to Machinery. Adding those 6 beakers will slow down any beaker decay (none so far) on that tech.

Now to the barb situation ... What can I say? I was wrong! The barb Warrior did not attack our Axeman during the IBT. On top of that, a 3rd barb Warrior has appeared. I'm going to pull our axe back to defend the copper mine. Hopefully he will get attacked twice during this IBT.

Our explorers in the west report that the Aloha isthmus may actually be an isthmus junction. Or possibly the isthmus does not lead to Aloha? Will we meet another team soon?



Meanwhile, our newest Galley continues to sail out of the Gulf of Balderdash. He will eventually head NE towards Epsilon.

If you will recall that I said last turn that I would hold our silver city Settler in place. I did go ahead and send the Warrior escort forward to do a little fog busting. And what should he find? Another source of silver. Check the dot map thread for a screenshot. Since we have some extra money from this turn of 0% research, I send the Settler forward. Not sure if this was a good idea, since I seem to be the only one in favor of this city ...

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Balderdash -> No changes. Granary will be complete next turn. The city needs a Barracks, Library, and Forge. Another Settler would also be a good idea, but I'm leaning towards infrastructure.

Hamburger -> No changes. Axeman due next turn. As this city contains our only Barracks, I'd like to keep it on troop training duty. What is next, another axe or another spear?

Treacle Cottage -> No changes. We have 36/200 GS points at +12 per turn. If I've done the math correctly, we should have a GS in 14 turns.

Brilliant -> No changes. We can whip the Lighthouse in 4 turns.

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We still need some city name suggestions for our Settler. You probably don't want me picking the city names, they definitely won't be Brilliant!

The thumbnail attachments below are our cities. And here is a look at our troop levels:

 

[killercane]

I for one thoroughly hate the silver site. Get that dude over by some food on the east coast and another settler to take advantage of the FP in the west where the barbs are. Monarchy will allow for the same happiness improvement as the silver at much less cost. A city at that silver site will sit there for the rest of the game, barely paying for itself.

 

[Conroe]

I'm totally against the silver site at this stage, and am thinking stretch for the ivory, or settle the western fps. On the east, the pink is not an ideal city, but has strategic importance, and will at least get the wheat and 3gpt coasts. What about moving red 1S and blue 1W for a better fit??

I for one thoroughly hate the silver site. Get that dude over by some food on the east coast and another settler to take advantage of the FP in the west where the barbs are. Monarchy will allow for the same happiness improvement as the silver at much less cost. A city at that silver site will sit there for the rest of the game, barely paying for itself.

Ok, fine ... I give in ... The silver city is OUT. This is a team game and I'm the only one that likes the city. Our Settler should be able to make it to either the isthmus site or the east coast food city in 4 turns. The western floodplains are looking to be about 7 turns. Pick the one that you want first.

As for the silver city not paying for itself, I disagree. Balderdash and Hamburger are sitting at the happiness cap. If TC wasn't working a GS, it would be at the happiness cap in 10-15 turns. Brilliant is going to be whipped mercilessly and will thus be at the happiness cap in the same timeframe.

The two extra happiness from the silver would mean two more productive citizens in every city. Assuming they worked cottages or coastal tiles, that translates to 6 commerce in 4 cities for a total of 24 extra commerce.

As for using HR to provide that happiness, we don't yet have the troop strength for that. Our troops need to be out busting fog and preparing for expansion, not holed up in our cities providing happiness. Realistically, Brilliant is the only city that will see a HR benefit beyond 1 happy face.

As for it being a worthless city, I think mediocre would be a better term. True, it will never be an economic power house, but it would have been a mediocre production city. I did a small test in WB -- the city can grow to size 13 (pre-Biology). Here is a shot of what it would like at a size 8 happiness cap:



My apologies for this post turning out to be a bit of a rant. I just disagree on this point. I promise, I will shut up now about this city. But please, lets all agree on the next city. We are eventually going to found all 3 of the alternate sites. Let's get some consensus on which one we found first.